Optics Valley
About Optics Valley
Arizona is home to world-class businesses and scientific and educational institutions with decades of innovation and leadership in optics, photonics and astronomy. Optics Valley is the industry cluster that helps its members thrive through business acceleration, workforce development, startup support, and connections to local and worldwide opportunities. Optics Valley is a committee of the Arizona Technology Council. For current events, conference, resource directory and news, visit the Optics Valley website at www.opticsvalleyaz.org.
Optics Valley Leadership
Optics Valley is led by committee chair John Dennis, president of Strategy1, and co-chair Katie Schwertz, senior manager of Optical Assemblies & Technology at Edmund Optics. John has served as chair since 2017. Katie was appointed co-chair in 2024, succeeding co-chair emeritus Jack Schumann.
John brings a broad range of diversified industry experience in building critical systems and business continuity solutions. From tech start-ups to major corporations, he has successfully fulfilled objectives for strategic change to improve company operations and profitability and spearheaded projects introducing innovative technology based products and solutions to an array of international enterprises.
In her role at Edmund Optics, Katie is responsible for managing corporate-wide design and analysis needs for existing products and new product development. She has more than a decade of applied industry experience in optical and optomechanical design and is recognized as an industry leader. She is a senior member of SPIE and Optica and was appointed to the Arizona Technology Council board of directors in 2024. She recently served on the SPIE board of directors and was the 2024 recipient of the SPIE President’s Award. She is the co-author of two books, the SPIE Field Guide to Optomechanical Design and Analysis (2012) and Photonics Rules of Thumb, 3rd ed. (2020).
History
The Optics Valley Committee was formed in 2017 as the new generation of the optics industry cluster in Arizona. Its predecessor, the Arizona Optics Industry Association (AOIA), was founded in 1992 as the world’s first optics industry cluster and represented the Arizona optics industry until the end of 2016. At that time AOIA was dissolved and the optics cluster initiative was transferred to Optics Valley, a committee of the Arizona Technology Council. Optics Valley’s mission is to catalyze, convene and connect optics, photonics, astronomy and supporting businesses throughout Arizona. John Dennis, Strategy1 president, was a leader in this transition and became the Optics Valley Committee chair. Also leading the committee since 2017 was co-chair Jack Schumann, who retired in 2024.
Optics Valley Highlights
